Sarah Palin Rallies the Troops in Asheville

I was reading How the Irish Saved Civilization tonight.
The book opens with a summary how the Roman Empire was growing hollow and empty-headed at the end of empire.

What a fitting book to be reading in the arena of the Thomas Wolfe Civic Center, a few minutes before Sarah Palin came on.
******

It started out OK. People were polite in line, though not talking much to each other, and not having too much of a spirit. No non-stop nastiness, vicious patriotism, etc.

After waiting in line forever, it seems (others had worse), I got in and the auditorium was almost full (I think I was one of the last 800 in).

One thing that struck was the lack of organizing. No one asked me to sign for anything, gave me info about early voting, asked me to help or buy a yard sign.
Did everyone give up, or do they not know how to organize?

But, whatever. I read about the fall of the empire and waited for the rally to begin.
Nathan Ramsey gave an oily speech. Someone, I think Mumpower gave one-- probably the best of the evening.

When Palin came out, she got out a sentence before a part of the crowd started shouting over her "USA! USA!" I wondered if they were trying to drown out a heckler. Sure enough, Sara said "Why don't we let security take care of that, and in the meantime, let's hear another song!". Sort of like the film Bob Roberts.

Her speech depressed me. Not so much because I disagreed with what she said (of course I would, given where I came from), but because she said so little. Her main agenda, after heading into the most severe recession in 70 years, with an unprecedented credit meltdown, and a global panic is.......tax cuts.
(No wonder the British conservative paper Financial Times endorsed Obama today. Even they think she's clueless.)

What amazed me, was instead of applause lines, she had boo lines-- lines calculated to have the audience boo ("The media went after Joe the Plumber!" Crowd- angry boos and hisses). At first I was thinking there were a lot, then I thought it might be a 1:1 ration between boo and applause lines. In the end, it felt more like 1:2. 66% of what she had to say was anger about how she and her audience were victimized. This is after 20 out of the last 28 years being GOP presidents! You'd think they might look in the mirror.

I knew I'd disagree with her, but I expected better. There is no there there.
No wonder Alaska's largest newspaper endorsed Obama/Biden today.

For all of that, I think the crowd could be won by Obama after he takes office. They didn't seem all that truly enthusiastic for the GOP. They just need to have one last rally before they face up to reality. Not just of overwhelming electoral defeat, but economic collapse due to the policies they asked for and received.


A headline in the Asheville Citizen-Times:
Zombies pose no threat at Palin event
Um, you can read it for the explanation.